The moment that the speaker recalls takes place in a field in Wyoming, which the speaker is just passing through. The transient context of the speaker's journey conveys the theme of change that appears throughout the poem. Various details about the environment and its inhabitants are etched in the speaker's mind. Namely, the "fields of just-overturned earth / black in the noon sun" and the "satin bellies / and udders slowly filling with milk" belonging to the thousands of cows standing in the fields (2-3 and 12-13). These vivid details allow the poem to re-enact the memory rather than report it as completed history. However, the speaker still experiences a sense of loss in the poem's present. Specifically, the speaker wishes to recover the peace of this moment.